If you’re looking for hidden treasure when it comes to restaurants in Bristol, a relatively compact city, it’s well worth expanding your horizons a little and heading to neighbourhoods a little further out from the usual city centre haunts. Fishponds is such an area, a venerable Victorian enclave just a few kilometres northeast that’s home to many excellent eateries. Among them is Maira, a Turkish restaurant on Fishponds Road that has attracted rave reviews for its authentic food, excellent service, and fantastically appointed interior.
Maira’s Fishponds Road restaurant oozes Ottoman charm, with a tent-like ceiling and an impressive central chandelier setting the scene for a Turkish feast that rivals any similar restaurant in Bristol for authenticity, flavour, and sheer diversity. The menu is packed with classics of the cuisine, and the in-house bakery is adept at turning out traditional Turkish breads, pastries, including the essential dessert baklava. Perched opposite Fishponds’ Pot Black Club, the famous snooker hall, Maira makes a great spot to begin when you want to rack up a good night.
The focal point at Maira is the traditional charcoal grill, open to the restaurant’s dining room and offering a tantalising sight and smell of what’s to come. Turkish meat and vegetable dishes are prepared here and delivered immediately to your table, often laid sizzling on a bed of rice and served alongside classic side dishes. The chef’s specials at this outer Bristol restaurant include the ezmeli kebab, the lamb beyti, the alinazik (chargrilled aubergine with a garlic and yoghurt dressing served with chopped lamb shish), the halep kebab, the the vegetarian-friendly sebze kebab. Trawling Fishponds for something new? Reserve Maira now.